Source: Radio New Zealand
Al Noor Mosque where 51 people were killed in a terrorist attack in 2019. RNZ / Nate McKinnon
The terrorist who massacred 51 worshippers at two Christchurch mosques is in prison because he committed the crime, not because of a coerced guilty plea, the Crown says.
Australian Brenton Tarrant wants the Court of Appeal to overturn his convictions and sentence for the March 2019 shootings at Al Noor Mosque and Linwood Islamic Centre.
The 35-year-old now claims he was “forced” to plead guilty to 92 charges because he was irrational as a result of torturous and inhumane prison conditions.
On Friday, Crown solicitor Madeleine Laracy told the court the terrorist was where he was always going to end up.
“Mr Tarrant made an informed choice in circumstances where he was between a rock and a rock,” she said.
“If he pleaded, he was certain of conviction. If he went to trial, the Crown says a conviction was a certainty.
“This is more than an overwhelming case so we say there was a certainty of conviction either way and either way, he would spend the rest of his life in prison likely without parole. He knew all of that.”
Laracy said the terrorist’s appeal lacked substance and had no merit.
“My learned friend said yesterday that this is one of the most difficult cases. Certainly, it is one of the most terrible and despicable but in terms of looking at this as an appeal, the Crown would disagree,” she said.
“It is not a legally difficult appeal because the evidence to support the argument is not there and the law is clear.”
The terrorist’s pleas also had no impact on his prison conditions because he would remain subject to very restrictive conditions for as long as he posed a risk to himself and others, Laracy said.
On Thursday, Tarrant’s lawyers claimed their client’s guilty pleas were not voluntary and were the result of the “oppressive” conditions in which he was held.
They argued the terrorist suffered a “complete destruction of his identity” because of the isolation, constant surveillance, deprivation and harassment of his prison conditions.
Crown solicitor Barnaby Hawes said the records and reports from the time showed the terrorist was not suffering from any mental illness and raised no issues about his capacity or fitness to plea.
On 31 July 2019 the terrorist decided he wanted to plead guilty to all charges.
The decision became so advanced that paperwork was prepared in anticipation of the pleas being entered in court.
Four days’ later he changed his mind again, only minutes before he was due to appear before the High Court.
In March 2020 the terrorist appeared via audio-visual link and formally pleaded guilty to 51 counts of murder, 40 of attempted murder and one of committing terrorism.
Hawes said the terrorist spoke to forensic psychiatrist Dr Jeremy Skipworth in August 2020 ahead of his sentencing.
“Crucially, Dr Skipworth says that Mr Tarrant was fit to plead when he did,” he said.
“At this point, Dr Skipworth is interviewing Mr Tarrant. Mr Tarrant said he was sleeping well. Dr Skipworth says that Mr Tarrant was affable, engaged, polite. He was an intelligent man who enjoys debate.
“No thought forms or disordered thinking was noted. No delusions or perceptual abnormalities. No psychotic disorder either now or in the past.”
Earlier reports and records showed the terrorist felt the “need to uphold the honour of his movement” in May 2019 and that caused him distress and anxiety.
In August 2019 concerns were raised about his depressed mood.
The terrorist told clinicians at that point that he “had been doing a lot of thinking and thinks the attacks may have been a waste of time, a complete waste of time”, Hawes told the court.
“So there’s early evidence there of that type of thought being expressed, whether it is a true reflection of his thoughts at that point or not is perhaps something that will never be known.
“That was around the time that Mr Tarrant had first indicated that he was going to plead guilty and then changed his mind.”
The following month it was reported that the terrorist’s mood had improved after he was allowed to review his manifesto.
In May 2020 he threatened to kill himself but reported his mood had improved after a good sleep and it was noted his recent guilty pleas would have increased his anxiety and stress.
The following month he was again referred to clinicians because he was showering in his gown and did not want to go to Christchurch for sentencing.
Hawes said the records were clear and did not show the extreme mental decline and impairment that the terrorist now claimed was happening at the time.
“If the contention is that he was experiencing the levels of impairment, distress to call into question the guilty pleas the contemporaneous record should show it,” he said.
“There is a picture of fluctuating mood and behaviour but that is brief, it’s situational and it’s responsive to external stressors without a sustained mood disorder or psychosis being identified.
“There are no indications of breakdown signs or clues as to what’s suggested.”
Hawes said lawyers who acted for the terrorist from late March 2019 until June 2020 had also called into question their former client’s claims.
Shane Tait and Jonathan Hudson told the court on Tuesday that once the terrorist indicated an intention to plead guilty, he maintained it from then on and only wished to control when the pleas were entered.
The pair had no reason to distort the record from that time and acted in the terrorist’s best interest and with real care, Hawes said.
“There are direct aspects that he says that he told his lawyers or the way that he was, which they simply refute,” he said.
“That’s of significance, not only in terms of the treatment of Mr Tarrant’s evidence, but also when looking at other evidence and whether it can be accepted or not.”
Hawes said the terrorist’s case boiled down to his word against all others who dealt and interacted with him at the time in question.
“Mr Tarrant is an unreliable witness and his evidence and his narrative should be treated with great caution,” he said.
Crown submissions would continue on Friday before the terrorist’s lawyers were allowed the right to respond.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand